TokyoLondon and...those smoothie hats

Coming to London is a bit like going to New York. You think : neons and flashlights, cornershops full of disgustingly nice snacks, police sirens breaking your daily routine and somehow the idea that what did not happen to you home definitely will here. Wel,l there is one thing for sure, the Karaoke booth experience did not happen to me in Paris and it did in London.

To me, karaoke was either British 80s classics friday pub singing (a rather fascinating for a young 16 year old on a language trip to Cornwall), Chinese restaurant dessert singing table tour in the 13th in Paris,but karaoke in a booth...no, this did only exist 10 000 km away in Tokyo in a movie (Lost in translation).

So, were we going to wear pink wigs and inside out T shirts ?
Were we going to become Scarlett Johannssen and Bill Murray for one night ?

Not really, but my first karaoke in a booth certainly did feel of Japan...with the 80s classics of course, London is still part of the UK after all.
The place is in the heart of Soho (see, why we French think NYC coming here) and from the outside looks like a cheap Japanese fastfood takeaway place. When you enter, all of the sudden the 80s are full on but not because of the screams you can hear in the background ("Annnd IIII say thaaank you for thhhe musiiiiic"...actually that's Sweden) but because of the striking reconstruction of those cartoons we all watched when growing up (long before family all sat down and had dinner watching the X factor, way before News at 7 became a mass...I'm talking days when our mums carefully only allowed us that precious hour of television).

Here I was in the bar of Uncle Kaz-san,wondering at which point Ranma, Jeanne et Serge (sorry folks, no clue how that one got through to the English version), Dragonball Z were going to come and take me with them in a singing booth.
Not long after 12 of us were screaming and openly offending our Rock legends not even caring that Ranma, Jeanne et Serge and all their Japanese friends might have strongly disapproved.
This is also what London is, this extraordinary mix of experiences and people in one deeply British rooted place.

But changing subject, I hear you wonder how knitting is going.
Well you can now find us in the shops !

Souvenirs from Italia

Not much insipiration tonight but a lot of images in my head.
Two years ago I was leaving Italy after 6 odd months. I ended up my stay in Milan by an unforgettable trip to Venice, Queen of canals wrapped up in a grey-green coat of fog.

Facing l'isola della Giudecca















In the distance, San Giorgio Maggiore

Going to the quartiere dell'università, daydreaming of what my next diner would be....















I can't resist not to add a very simple but really tasty dessert recipe : Ricotta with redberries and a hint of maple syrup.
Add a leaf of mint and you're in sweet heaven.

Buona notte !

Knitting in London2

So how's the knitting going ?
Very well, we have now sent the hats (but not my teddy bear scarf full of holes...).
And oh surprise, surprise, it seems the knitting frenzy has spread over Europe as The Guardian of this weekend reports.
Check out Diary of an entrepreneur
http://money.guardian.co.uk/workweekly/story/0,,1645612,00.html

It seems that all European grannies (Continental and non Continental) have been hijacked do knit like crazy by the central heating (no fireplaces anymore these days) pressurised like chicks in a Premium chicken meat factory.

In the meantime here is a snapshot of our production, the best bien sûr.













No doubt here, knitting is definitely in fashion this winter, stressed out grannies or not.
And...Helped the aged will have the best Christmas ever !

Garbage bin - work bin

Because we work in the Qualitative department, as opposed to Quantitative (the two types of market research, if this all sounds Chinese to you, be assured it is to us sometimes too), we prefer quality to quantity you see.

So, because quality waste management is far better than quantity waste (management), our department has been generously offered to try the latest most efficient way of sorting rubbish at workplace.
In other words, how to reduce expenses on paying a cleaning company. "How ? Profit is jeopardized by our garbage bill ? Let's make our employees more eco-friendly responsible !".

And so we now have three new friends here on the fifth floor of the very Victorian London I work at (not mentioning overlooking on the Queen's tennis court, empty, season after season. Her Majesty I'm sure must prefer polo).
Yes, three recycling bins.

So, what is this fuss all about then Elise ?
Well because we now are eco-friendly-let's save the planet, which by the way I totally adhere with, the bins by our desks have all been suppressed.
Exit the fees to kindly ask the cleaners to empty each emplyee's rubbish evening after evening. After all who would want that job ?

Our precious efficient profit-driven working hours are now interrumpted by numerous trips to greet one of our new friends : "paper only", "plastic and cans" and "other waste" (newly renamed "hazardous chemicals"). Wether it's to sharpen your pencil, get rid of that banana skin, rip that report you have pretended to have read at the last meeting, it's all down to you now to get your bottom up and walk a bit.

The reality is made of various inventive possibilities :
- use that old supermarket bag that was lying at the back of your drawer
- put all your rubbish on your boss desks whilst he's gone to chat to the head of finance
- recycle it yourself, screw it, with all that Burger King- on the go low and high carb junk we eat
nowadays, a bit of paper and plastic won't hurt.
- knit bin-cosies

This, my fiends, is called progress.
I am knitting my sleeping in the office bag as we speak. Wouldn't it be great if we could all start efficiency at 7 am getting rid of London Underground and South Eastern trains ?

'til then, bonne nuit !

Sunday, sunday here again

England knows how to relax on a sunday.
Sunday papers, sunday roast, sunday hangover and Lost on channel 4. Yes, the Brits know how to take a laid back approach to "God, saturday's already over, and tomorrow is back to the office".
On the contrary, we, frogs, get stuck in 4 hours long family lunch gathering, no papers they're all from saturday and anyway few of them have any exciting weekend bits, no pub lunch but 15 seats table booked with a fixed 3 courses menu. By 5 pm we all need an alcaselzer and a miracle to stop us from wanting to bazooka the whole family.

So, taking the laid back cool UK approach, Steve and I went for a one course, full on meat, yorkshire pudding and French peas (well must be another vegetable you fuys stole at Waterloo) down to the Princess of Wales (or the Camilla), our local pub with the view on the heath.
7 pm, I am still trying to digest my gravy, but God that was nice.

Thank you guys for knowing how to cheer up on a Sunday, I really don't miss the French version.

Bon dimanche !

Un soir de novembre à Blackheath

Ravel en fond musical,
Les flammes de mon antique cheminee,
une tisane d'herbes sechées,
les fantômes de nos ancêtres victoriens,
Blackheath a une douce saveur d'automne ce soir.

Knittting in London - Tricotter a Londres

Another thing you learn coming to the UK as a frog is the real importance, and may I say, business of charity.
Whilst French consider donating as a private and personal action, here people get you to sponsor them to run, climb, dive...and give out the money to a charity of their choice.

At work, we have decided to knit hats for Innocent Smoothies (another thing you discover : wonderful fruit puree, shame M and S is now off France....).
http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/

and so, after 20 years of promising myself to never reiterate the dreadful and painful experience of producing a cat made or knitted blue wool, using the famous French "tricotin", here I am, discussing briefs and client products to launch in 2006, fighting whith that damn god brown wool.
By 4 pm half of the female and gay community of the office was full on, armed with needles and colored wool, wondering why the hell e-mails did not get answered.

But hey who cares about productivity, we're knitting little woolen hats for those yummy drinks.
The Charity ?
Well, there is a link with knitting here....
Help the aged.

Needless to say I am so bad, I have been given the task to try and complete a scarf for my teddy bear first. If there aren't too many holes (two already) I'll be allowed to knit the hat.
I feel my life has reached such a sense of accomplishement right now.

Si vous êtes sages, as we say in France, pictures soon !!!

Enjoy the evening and God save the knitting (and the aged)

Goodnight folks

Elise (obviously feeling 20 years older)

Another frog, another blog...

I'm French. So, like any other French lured to the boom town (i.e. London) to experience the most exciting place in Europe (or so we're told), one of the first things I have learnt here was that I was not a human being, a young trendy 20 something female executive, no I was an animal. I was and am...a frog.

The second thing I have learnt not long after tasting my first PG tip- no sugar milk yes please leave the tea bag in cheers - , is that I come from a place called the continent. Some of my fellow Market Research colleagues even refered to a place called Europe.

Let's be frank, this was not going to be an easy task : survive amongst the Brits being called a green little slimy thing trying to make it in red bricks, slice bread, binge drinking, tabloids, mushy peas and ex prisonners as your bus driver home back to whichever terraced street your gloriously live in.

But thank heavens, I am told there are 300 000 of us in London.
Lord, how many frogs can the London pond still cope with ?

This is partly, what this blog is about.

Frogquestion 1 - after over a year and a half in the London Pond, how does a 27 years old female frog cope ? What is it really to live in the supposed to be most groovy place in Europe ? well, non continental Europe right !

Frogquestion 2 - who is this for ?
Well, any other Frog reading this from the continent and wanting to grasp a bit of some London Pond taste. Or, any UK national, as they say in the forms, desperately wanting to finally get how the hell do we frogs cope without our baguette, parsley garlic snails and mad driving ?

Here is an answer or at least a start :
we have Sainsbury's French baton the best marketing contrick since pre washed lettuce, forget the snails ! no one eats them anymore..see, we do have ready meals too in France, and we keep our French car number plate so we can keep on insulting each other at the traffic light and scare the hell out of you at 70 mph on the bus lane.
Bien sur, we also complain a lot.

How about the language ?
In all honesty, after a year and a half, I am starting to feel the very first symptoms of complete utter dyslexia. As a logic As a logic consequence this blog will be in English when I feel Island minded and French, when feeling terribly arrogantly Continental.

Welcome to my blog and Bon Appetit ! as they say back home.







Enjoy ! Elise